Banana-Kiwi Charlotte – An Un-Chef Special Dessert

As you will already know if you have been following The Un-Chef for any length of time, our method of cooking involves making things up as we go along! Recently, we were entertaining a large group of people and I needed an extra dessert. I really had no idea at all what I was going to make. Looking around the kitchen and cupboards, I saw two ingredients that needed to be used up: Some fairly ripe bananas and a couple of packages of lady fingers. The challenge, to myself, was to turn these into an attractive, interesting and hopefully tasty dessert.

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This is really a combination and/or modification of two desserts that are featured in The Un-Cookbook: Sherry Trifle found on page 105 and custard found on page 102

Ingredients:

Here’s what you’ll need if you want to reproduce this delectable dish:

Base:

1 Pkg of ladyfingers (about 24)

1 Pkg of Jello any flavour but green or yellow colour is best

Fillings:

2 Cups of banana custard (creme anglaise)

1 cup of whipping cream

1 oz of fruit liqueur (optional)

1 tsp of icing sugar

Garnish:

2-3 fresh kiwis

Preparation Tips:

Make the jello with half boiling water and then add ice cube as the balance of the liquid to speed up the setting process. Cut the ladyfingers to the correct length for your dish if necessary. Place them to cover the sides and bottom of your dish. The cut tips can be placed in the bottom. Quickly dip the ladyfingers in the jello before placing them in the dish. Pour any remaining jello over the placed fingers.

Place the thinly sliced bananas into the cooled custard which should be of a consistency resembling pie filling. Too runny and it will be difficult to serve. Too thick and it will form a solid lump like blancmange.

Add the icing sugar and optional liqueur to the whipping cream once it has started to form peaks.

Slice and arrange the Kiwi as illustrated. If you are not going to be serving within a few hours, you may wish to add some sort of glaze to keep the garnish fresh!